Should Disney get rid of Reservations or find ways to improve them?

[GPC0321]

I think the dining plan has its drawbacks. I know from a planning stand-point, it was absolute madness trying to assure we'd be getting our money's worth, and while our current OOP ADRs are the foundation of our trip, with the dining plan it felt like we were slaves to when and where we ate. I was basically trying to pick the most expensive places I could so that we got our money's worth, and sometimes that meant going way out of our way just to hit a more expensive TS or QS restaurant for a particular meal. And trying to fit snacks in too? I pictured us being forced to eat when we weren't particularly hungry, rushing from place to place hitting what attractions we could between the all-important meal times. And the pressure to GET those higher priced ADRs in order to make the dining plan worth it was not fun.
I'm much happier making reservations that fit into our day at places where we don't feel obligated to order an appetizer, the most expensive entree, and dessert at every meal. Instead we can split a pizza at Via Napoli, eat a fairly modest meal at R&C for IllumiNations, just get French onion soup, a salad, and a cupcake at BOG (if we want), share some appetizers for lunch at Yak & Yeti, and have a sandwich at The Plaza on our arrival evening before enjoying the MK. We can grab counter service and snacks as we choose without worrying about getting the best "bang for out buck".
It'd be different if we were interested in a lot of character buffets and signature places, but we're not, so OOP dining makes more sense.

 

[jacknsally19]

I certainly find the whole booking meals 180 days in advance super ridiculous. I would love to be able to say hmm - I feel like seafood tonight and eat that way.... as I do every other day of the year! I agree with others that have pointed out the challenge of planning FPs around meals. My suggestions for improving the system would be :

A waiting list for reservations along with an alert system (like email or text) notifying you that a table is available. Yes it would be difficult for WDW to add some technology but here is a reason to consider it - possibly reduce open tables AND improve customer satisfaction.

Add good restaurants to Magic Kingdom! There is a reason BOG is so impossible... people want nice in park sit down meals. Overhaul Tonys and add another Ohana like restaurant to Adventureland.

 

[BarbieGal457]

I absolutely love ADRs and they really do help me plan my FPs and such. I would rather move around FPs than have a big question mark around where I'll be eating for the day and when. We are extremely flexible and finding a time has never been an issue for us. I do check frequently during the day if I'm trying to get something that is hard to grab, but nothing crazy. We booked our ADRs 9 days out before last NYE because it was very spur of the moment and we were so happy with our meals at MK. If they took away ADRS I would honestly be miffed. I love knowing I will get to eat where I want at a time that works for us instead of having no idea, scrambling to get there, maybe waiting crazy times or not getting to eat there at all. ADRs allow us to feel so much freer - we know we have a seat for a meal we really want and we don't have added stress of day-of, walk-ups or such. I agree with PPs that if they took away ADRs I might never do TS again and it may really dampen my excitement of going, knowing I am either fighting for a seat or eating CS all the time.

As others have said it's constantly opening and closing windows, and with a little diligence and flexibility I have always been able to snag what I wanted. Even at home I use OpenTable weekly to reserve tables, and it's saved us some mighty long standby waits and all I had to do was take 30 seconds to book it, sometimes even while in the car on the way there!

The idea of only one ADR per meal wouldn't really work either. As others have said there are plenty of reasons why one party may have several, and we often will book dinner at one place, and dessert at another, thus giving us two "dinner" ADRs for one night.

 

[BarbieGal457]

We also have usually gotten lucky with moving around or grabbing ADRs day of, or the day before, if we feel we want a different type of meal. We've never once really felt locked into anything even though I plan them as far out as I can, which is usually 180 days. Maybe I should count my lucky stars that we haven't really had any issues with our dining!

 

[LilyWDW]

I enjoy the current system just the way it is. I never have an issue with the fact that you have to plan ahead. Just pick restaurant locations that have foods you enjoy and there you go. Everywhere offers a variety of items that it's not at all an issue if you feel like seafood that night or something... you can get it just about anywhere!

Having no reservations would just be a mess. I know I would not eat at Disney TS in that case because I refuse to sit there and wait just for food. Heck, I'm not sure I would be doing many trips to Disney at all in that case as I enjoy my dining and my TS meals quite a bit.

And they have, in the past, attempted to reduce the number of days before your trip for ADRs. It was a mess. The system could not handle the simple volume of requests, things crashed left and right, there were more complaints of people not being able to get what they want, and it was one heck of a headache. It makes sense to have it where it is as it spreads out the demand better for the system. People would just change their whining from "I can't book my trip that far out" to "I couldn't get what I wanted because I was stuck on the phone for x number of hours". You know how the system doesn't work they day they release discounts or the day they release F&W events? Yea, that would be every single day with a shortened ADR window.

 

[MickeyWaffles]

I like the DDP and do not find it to be the root that is all Disney Dining Evil. The jury is still our whether folks save on the DDP, or if the DDP is responsible fo rchanges in Disney Dining menus, so I just do not see that removng it would change a thing in regards to making ADR's. People have specific restaurants in mind when they dine in Disney, many pay OOP. They all will still want to eat where they want to eat, so I just cannto see that this would fix the race to make those reservations.

I do view the DDP as the root of all Disney Dining evil I realize that crowds in general have increased since before the DDP was implemented, and that accounts for more butts in the seats at TS restaurants.

But, I still think there's a good number of people who do take advantage of the "deal" you can get with the DDP at higher priced places, and thus the competition for CRT, BOG, Le Cellier, etc. CRT and Le Cellier have always been in demand but not like it is now. People are scrambling for these because they are great AND to maximize their DDP.

There are still lots of people who primarily go OOP (my family included) but there are TONS of people on the dining plan, and IMO some of them wouldn't do a TS every day of their trip if they weren't on the dining plan.

The volume of people dining in Disney restaurants is noticeably different than pre-DDP, and I don't think it's only because of attendance increases. I could be wrong but it really just is my observation over the years.

 

[Dis703]

We wouldn't be able to visit Disney without dining reservations. Three boys with a laundry list of allergies and food aversions and we need to be able to plan where and when we will be dining in order to make sure they have enough safe options.

It can be time consuming but we've always been able to get what we wanted in the end. There are definitely changes that should be made but no reservations at all would be awful IMO.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

Keep it. Spontaneous folks can fight for what's left.